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Cardio And Strength Training

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Cardio and strength training are essential for building a balanced fitness ability. Being both aerobically conditioned and physically strong will better enable you to meet many of life’s demands. Chasing down a bus or popping open a stubborn jam jar will be a breeze for those who keep up their cardio and strength training.


These two exercise methods are also important for those who participate in sports. Many sports – from football to boxing – require a varying mixture of CV fitness and muscular strength. And though the quantities differ, both ingredients are needed for optimal performance.


In addition to improving general fitness, cardio and strength training provide many health benefits. Benefits that, moreover, are unique to them and cannot be accessed elsewhere. According to an American Cancer Society article, those that participate in regular exercise are statistically less likely to suffer from many 'noncommunicable' diseases – such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and many different types of cancer.


In anticipation of the discussion to follow, regular cardio exercise is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and weightlifting has been shown to reduce the onset of age-related muscle deterioration (sarcopenia). But more on that in a minute.


Cardio and strength training

This article aims to provide you with a cardio and strength training plan. Implementing the plan will enable you to establish a balanced routine that promotes a broad range of benefits.


While the plan forms a fixed routine, I explain how you can modify it to place more emphasis on cardio or strength. Furthermore, I outline a few ideas of how the tasks can be tailored to target a specific fitness goal.


Before that, though, we’ll briefly review the health and fitness benefits associated with cardio and strength training. In addition to underscoring their importance, this section should also serve as a motivational impetus to maintain each element of the plan. A common mistake made by exercisers is to focus (almost exclusively) on their preferred method. Over time this leads to fitness imbalances and prevents them from accessing all the benefits.


Cardio and strength training benefits

Let’s start with cardio first. We all know that aerobic exercise stimulates the heart, lungs and vascular systems. But what long-term benefits does this promote?


Well, if an untrained person starts participating in regular cardio exercise – running, rowing, cycling – the muscle of the heart will grow stronger. Not just that but it will also become more ‘capacious’ – the chambers into which blood ebbs and flows get bigger. These two adaptions increase the stroke volume, which is the amount of blood that the heart pumps out with each beat. A greater stroke volume is associated with improved physical performance.


If that barrage of benefits hasn’t budged your opinion on cardio, I’ve got a few more for you. A study outlined by Prof. Daniel Liberman in his book Exercised: The Science of Physical Activity, Rest, and Health, showed that cardio was far more effective than resistance training at reducing body fat. As Dr Robert Lustig points out, a lower body fat percentage is associated with better overall health and improved longevity.


Convinced? This list of additional benefits should do the trick.


Key benefits of cardio

  • Increase stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped out of the heart with each beat)

  • Decreases resting heart rate

  • Enlarges the arteries and veins – this improves blood flow

  • Increases the number of capillaries (capillarisation)

  • Decreases blood clotting which improves blood viscosity

  • Lowers blood pressure and reduces blood cholesterol levels

  • Improves the ratio between HDL (good) cholesterol to LDL (bad) cholesterol

  • Increases insulin sensitivity


Benefits of strength training

After reading about all those cardio benefits, you’re probably wondering what could possibly left over for strength training. As I alluded to in the introduction, resistance exercise confers many health and fitness advantages – some of which are entirely unique. Before we sink our teeth into the peach of benefits, let’s build up an appetite by tasting a few pieces of low-hanging fruit.


In the book, A Complete Guide To Strength Training, Anita Bean takes the reader on a whistlestop tour of reasons to start pumping iron. Some of those reasons include reducing injury risk, improving body composition, increasing metabolic rate, improving mental health, self-body image and confidence.


But by far the most important benefit of building strength is the reduced risk of sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia refers to the age-related gradual decline in muscle mass and strength. Though the condition is commonly found in people over the age of 70, it can affect sedentary populations. Those whose muscles are atrophied from a lack of use are experiencing sarcopenia. And it is not to be taken lightly.


Key reason to start strength training

Ageing in Motion, a web-based consortium committed to advancing research and treatment for sarcopenia, highlights the various negative impacts associated with the condition. As well as impairing the quality of life, sarcopenia can:


  • Reduce the ability to perform simple tasks

  • Increased disability risk which may lead to impaired independence

  • Raise the risk of falls and fractures

  • Increase post-injury complications

  • Raise the risk of premature mortality


Cardio and strength training plan

Now that we’ve explored the associative health and fitness benefits of cardio and strength training, it’s time to turn our attention to the plans. You’ll notice that there are two plans to choose from. The first is for those who want to focus more on cardiovascular fitness, whereas the second is for those who want to prioritise strength. What’s the difference?


It's simply down to the cardio-strength split. Throughout plan one, CV features three days and strength on two. The second plan, by contrast, switches the split – strength to three days and CV two days.


Of course, these splits are not set in stone and you can modify the ratios to suit your fitness objectives. I’ve outlined a few ideas of how you could do this. To make things easier, the suggestions have been organised into four different training schedules.


Program split examples

cardio and strength training planner.

Cardio and strength training plan

Cardio And Strength Training plan #1.

Justification of the training plan

The sweat sessions are self-explanatory: the objective is to maintain a low- to medium-intensity output for the stipulated duration. I’ve selected running and rowing because they are two of the most effective aerobic exercises for stimulating the cardiovascular system and burning fat. To get the same level of engagement from, say, cycling and the cross-trainer requires considerably more discipline.


Turning our attention to the resistance exercises. I’ve opted for a ‘total body’ workout comprised of large compound movements. The total body training method enables you to target all the major muscle groups in a single session. This is essential when your plan consists of two resistance training days.


You’ll notice that the complexity of the exercises decreases as the workout progresses. The purpose of this design feature is twofold. First, tackling the compound movements at the start of the workout when you’re fresh will enable you to maximise strength gains. Second, the quality of your form inevitably deteriorates as muscles become tired. This decreases performance as we are less likely to apply the full range of movement. Also, as the authors of the NSCA's Guide To Program Design observe, as we become fatigued the quality of our technique deteriorates which increases injury risk. To mitigate these undesirable outcomes, multi-joint exercises are situated at the start of the workout.


Strength and cardio training plan

Cardio And Strength Training #2.

Justification of the training plan

The same resistance training principles have been applied in the second plan. Again, I’ve opted for a total body workout. But, because we have an extra strength training day, I’ve increased the variation of exercises. The structure of the exercises observes the complex to simple ordering.


In addition, to compensate for the natural decline in energy levels across the week, each workout gets progressively easier. Monday’s workout – when you’ll be at your most energetic from a rested weekend – is populated with compound exercises performed mostly on barbells. By Friday – when you’ll be feeling the pinch – the powerlifting equipment gives way to machines, cables, and dumbbells.


From the above, not much can be added as justification for the cardio sessions. Of course, because there are only two workouts, the mean average duration is marginally longer. The exercises selected are still running and rowing. However, as I’ll discuss in more detail below, you can substitute skipping, cycling and swimming.


Cardio and strength training hints and tips

As mentioned above, the training plans can be reshuffled to align with your schedule. You don’t have to stick with the set splits. But what I would suggest, though, is that you ensure to get roughly equal doses of cardio and strength through the week.


Another amendable aspect of the plans is the organisation of training tasks. To avoid complicating the workouts, I’ve kept the activities and resistance protocol straightforward. For example, the cardio sessions involve short- to medium-duration steady-state exercise. However, if you’re feeling particularly energetic, consider spicing up your workout with a bout of HIIT (high-intensity interval training) or cardio circuit. The same advice can be applied to the strength workouts. Replace conventional sets and reps with a CrossFit-style AMRAP (as many reps as possible), EMOM (every minute on the minute) or a barbell-only complex.


Another modification that you might want to make is to the exercises. While there are limited substitutions for cardio replacements, if for whatever reason you are unable to perform the exercise selected, you should change it. This advice will likely be more applicable to those who do not have regular access to a gym, train at home, or are carrying an injury.


Again, the same strategy stands for the strength exercises – but for different reasons. Beginners, for example, would be wise to convert complex compound exercises into simple isolation or machine-based movement. By doing so, you’ll be able to tap into those benefits described above while minimising the risk of incurring an injury.


A final reason to tweak the plans is to make the tasks and exercises specific to your sport. I’m going to focus this explanation on boxing as it is my preferred sport. However, the principles of adaptation that I will describe apply to any sporting discipline. To ‘boxify’ the cardio workouts, I’d prioritise relevant CV exercises such as skipping, shadowboxing, and running. As for the strength sessions, I’d incorporate ballistic drills such as kettlebell snatches, push presses, and plyometric squat jumps. These scattered examples illustrate how the plans can be reformulated to promote sports performance.


 

About Adam Priest –

A former Royal Marines Commando, Adam Priest is a content writer, college lecturer, and health and fitness coach. He is also a fitness author and contributor to other websites. Connect with Adam at info@hungry4fitness.co.uk.


 

References

Bean. A. (2008) Strength Training: The Complete Guide ToA&C Black. London.


Clevland Clinic: how to reduce the risk of developing sarcopenia

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